Do you source services and goods for your company the same way you shop for your family?
Today’s post is by Mark Davis; Sr. Vice President of Operations and CTO at SafeSourcing.
We have been looking at how the concepts that influence how people purchase for themselves personally can be applied to the procurement world to help overcome hurdles and to better understand how to approach their own difficult procurement projects.
In today’s blog we will be looking at how we as consumers are constantly looking for more from the products we buy and the companies we buy them from and how that same practice should be employed when reviewing your company’s suppliers.
Expecting More
In the world of advertising and marketing there are professionals whose job it is to keep us informed of all the ways the services and products we are currently buying are deficient in every way to the services and products they are selling. As jaded television watching and magazine reading consumers we have learned to filter out what is real and what is fluff, so we know when we see something we want and will demand that new offering from our current company or we will decide on whether to switch products or providers.
Obviously the effects of switching that quickly and often in the business world can be disastrous and as procurement professionals we don’t have the same adverting messages constantly in our face to pick apart our current partnerships and supplier choices. That does not mean, however, that there is not something to take away from this mentality of learning what is new and expecting more.
Part of any good sourcing strategy will be to examine (typically in the form of a Request For Information) what is available on the market that is new. This does not even mean you have to consider changing vendors, but it does give you the option of seeing how your choice of forklifts compares to the latest and greatest on the market or what teleconferencing services are now willing to provide customers that sign a 2-year contract that is more than what you are getting today.
As the old saying goes, “You don’t know what you don’t know,” and you can’t make the best decisions for your company unless you “know it.”
Tomorrow we will conclude this series by looking at how getting help can increase your savings.
For more information about how we can assist with sourcing projects for your company, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service Representative.
We look forward to your comments.
